Ultra-Processed Foods and Nutritional Profiles on Chronic Disease

Dear Colleagues,

Food processing can enhance safety and shelf life; however, emerging evidence suggests that Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs) may be associated with adverse health outcomes. Food reformulation has been used in recent years to remove “unhealthy” substances or improve nutritional content via macro- and micro-nutrient fortification. Examples include the Trans-fat ban policy implemented in the EU since 2018, and the fortification of milk with vitamin D. The question that prevails currently is to what extent a food can be processed and still remain a “whole food”, and, to what extent do food fortifications actually improve dietary intakes?

In the past years, the majority of observational studies on UPF consumption have found associations with adverse health outcomes, including but not limited to obesity, dysmetabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and cognitive dysfunction. The extent to which this is explained by the generally high levels of saturated fat, salt, and sugar of UPFs, or by no whole food consumption, is not clear. Also, it is often forgotten/omitted that red meat consumption remains with populations not meeting health guidelines for fruit and vegetable intakes.

The relation between food processing and nutrient bioavailability remains complex, as food matrix interactions can both enhance and impair nutrient absorption. To date, there is no research available that proves whether the addition of nutrients outweighs the negatives of UPFs; hence, the processing paradox remains. There are market perception challenges where processing is associated with "artificial" or "unnatural" ingredients, packaging issues, assumptions about nutritional value versus actual comprehension, and many misconceptions about satiety and metabolism. The type of food consumed is not often evaluated, but most foods are horizontally studied. Further confusing consumers is the suggestion that home-prepared foods are always nutritionally superior and are not processed, even when techniques and ingredients are identical to those used by industry. A chocolate cake, however, is a chocolate cake, no matter where it is made, and is high in sugars and saturated fats.

This Special Issue aims to advance UPF research by promoting studies that examine foods as complex matrices rather than simple nutrient sums, investigate processing effects on bioavailability, and assess health outcomes using holistic approaches. The scope of this Special Issue is to publish original research and systematic reviews that consider food complexity, understand processing effects on nutrient interactions, and examine diverse health outcomes beyond traditional observational studies. This will shed further light on the association between UPF in terms of proportion to overall diet, but also on types of UPF and, of course, the effect of types of non-UPF dietary components on health.

This Special Issue of Nutrients welcomes the submission of study design and intervention studies, as well as of systematic reviews and meta-analyses coming from a wide range of related disciplines (i.e., human nutrition and dietetics, public health, epidemiology, health promotion, non-communicable chronic diseases, etc.).

Dr. Emmanuella Magriplis
Prof. Dr. George P. Chrousos
Guest Editors

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• ultra-processed foods (UPF)
• NOVA classification
• food processing
• dietary patterns
• chronic disease
• nutritional epidemiology
• diet quality
• holistic nutrition assessment
• nutrient interactions
• (dys)metabolic syndrome
• cardiovascular disease
• overweight
• obesity
• diabetes
• inflammatory markers
• gut microbiome
• mental health
• dementia